Prime Way Care Ltd London

Updated 23 January 2019

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection checked whether the provider is meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Health and Social Care Act 2008, to look at the overall quality of the service, and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.

This inspection took place on 16 January 2019. We told the provider two working days before our visit that we would be coming because the location provides a domiciliary care service for people in their own homes and staff might be out visiting people.

The inspection visit was conducted by one inspector. We contacted people who used the service, their representatives and staff by telephone to ask for feedback. Some of these phone calls were made by an expert-by-experience. An expert-by-experience is a person who has personal experience of using or caring for someone who uses this type of care service. We spoke with the relatives of two of the people who used the service. We were not able to speak with any of the staff, but we asked them for feedback, which three staff provided by email. All four people paid privately for their care, and there were no external professionals who could give us feedback about the service.

Before the inspection visit we looked at all the information we held about the service. This included information we gathered when the service was registered. We also looked at public information about the provider, which included their website.

During the inspection we met the registered manager and deputy manager. We looked at the care records for all four people and for the four members of care staff who worked at the service. We also looked at other records and systems used by the provider for managing the service.

At the end of our visit we gave feedback about our findings to the registered manager and deputy manager.

Updated 23 January 2019

The inspection took place on 16 January 2019. We told the provider two working days before our visit that we would be coming because the location provides a domiciliary care service for people in their own homes and staff might be out visiting people.

This was the first inspection of the service since it was registered on 6 February 2018.

Prime Way Care Ltd London is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats in the community. It provides a service to adults. At the time of the inspection four people were using the service. Two were adults under 65 years with physical disabilities and two were older adults. All four people were Somalian and spoke Somali as a first language. The staff were also from the same cultural background and spoke Somali. The registered manager explained that they would also provide a service to people from other cultural backgrounds in the future if needed.

Prime Way Care Ltd London was a branch of Prime Way Care Ltd, a private organisation who ran one other branch in Bristol.

There was a registered manager in post. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Like registered providers, they are ‘registered persons’. Registered persons have legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act and associated Regulations about how the service is run.

People using the service were happy with the care they received. They were pleased that staff from the same ethnic background and who spoke the same language as them, provided their care. They found the staff were kind, caring and supportive. People's needs were being met, they had support with personal care, to eat the food they wanted and to be as independent as they could be. There was an emphasis supporting people to make choices about their care, and this was reflected in the attitude of the staff and registered manager.

Everyone using the service at the time of the inspection had the mental capacity to make decisions about their care. There was evidence they had been involved in planning their care and had been consulted about this to make sure they were happy.

The staff enjoyed their work and felt supported. The provider had procedures to ensure that only suitable staff were recruited, and the staff received the training, information and support they needed to care for people. There were enough staff to meet people's needs and keep them safe. They arrived on time for care visits and stayed the agreed length of time.

The provider had effective systems for assessing and improving the quality of the service. They had assessed risks for people and provided plans about how these should be mitigated. There was an appropriate complaints procedure, and the provider had responded to concerns and learnt from these. They had systems to monitor how people felt about the service and to check that the staff were providing effective care.